Behind Coppelia, the air turned instantly frigid. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of long spears formed from pure ice crystals and hard rock materialized out of thin air, their tips gleaming with a chilling, heavy luster.
Her gaze locked onto Ikhtiyar in front of her and Lessing further away. With a wave of her arm, the ice and rock spears tore through the air, emitting sharp whistling sounds as they shot toward the two targets in a blanket barrage.
Beside Ikhtiyar, the red and black flames surged in response, the temperature rising abruptly. The longsword in her hand traced a profound, arcane trajectory, guiding the "Fire of Two Worlds" to churn and converge. The flames twisted and expanded, seemingly transforming into a giant serpent made of dark red fire, emitting a silent hiss.
The flame serpent writhed its body, coiling into an airtight wall of fire. All the incoming ice spears vaporized into white mist the instant they touched it, while the rock spears were shattered into fine powder by the scorching heat waves, falling with a rustle.
As the defense was completed, Ikhtiyar charged forward. The flame serpent raised its head along with her, opening a maw that seemed capable of swallowing light itself. Carrying a momentum that threatened to incinerate everything, it bit down toward Coppelia.
Wind generated beneath Coppelia's feet, and her body retreated rapidly. She crossed her hands in front of her. A dense, verdant green mist permeated from around her, quickly filling more than half of the cavern space.
The previous volley of ice and rock had limited coverage. This time, she intended to make it impossible for the opponent to evade or block.
Ikhtiyar was already surrounded by blazing red and black flames. The moment the fire made contact with the pervading Dendro mist, a violent [Burning] reaction occurred instantly!
"Whoosh—Boom!"
Bright orange-red firelight exploded violently from Ikhtiyar's position. The Dendro element served as the perfect accelerant; the fire spread and expanded at an astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, it completely swallowed her figure, forming a wildly burning, scorching fireball several meters in diameter. The blinding light illuminated the entire cavern and obscured all vision within.
A suppressed groan came from inside the fireball. Ikhtiyar could feel that her protective "Fire of Two Worlds" was fiercely clashing with this external mundane fire. She immediately mobilized her power, attempting to raise a larger range of red and black flames around her, relying on their higher status to thoroughly burn away the annoying Dendro element.
But Coppelia did not give her this chance. She maintained the release of the verdant mist continuously. If the opponent added one portion of Pyro to try and suppress it, she would throw in three portions of Dendro!
The Dendro element flowed endlessly, like the highest quality fuel, causing the [Burning] reaction to not only persist but intensify.
The Pyro element burned continuously with the aid of Dendro, and the temperature within the enclosed space climbed sharply. That huge fireball seemed to turn into an out-of-control "reactor," the light and heat inside reaching terrifying levels.
The [Burning] reaction covered every corner inside the fireball, leaving no blind spots. Even though Ikhtiyar was protected by the "Fire of Two Worlds," she began to feel the pervasive heat slowly penetrating her defenses, scorching her skin and clothes.
The fireball grew brighter and brighter, so bright that even Coppelia had to narrow her eyes slightly.
Now.
Coppelia clenched her hands loosely and pulled them apart to her sides. Dozens of twisting, jumping purple Electro arcs, as thick as the mouth of a bowl, condensed between her palms, emitting a scalp-numbing crackling sound. She pushed both arms forward—
"Rumble—!!!"
Dozens of thick Electro arcs whipped viciously onto the scorching Dendro sphere that had reached its peak brightness!
Electro and the violently burning Pyro instantly triggered the most berserk [Overload] reaction!
A deafening explosion blasted abruptly in the underground space! The shockwave of the explosion was like a solid wall, sweeping out in all directions. The rock layer at the top of the cavern, already brittle from the high heat, collapsed over a large area amidst the loud noise and tremors. Stones of various sizes poured down like a rainstorm, perfectly burying the gradually dimming fireball at the center of the explosion, along with Ikhtiyar inside it.
The instant she released the lightning strike, Coppelia had already erected a heavy orange-yellow Geo shield in front of her. The shockwave slammed into the shield, making a dull thud. Web-like cracks appeared on the surface of the Geo shield, but it ultimately held.
The aftershocks and dust slowly dispersed. Coppelia shifted her gaze to Lessing at the other end of the cavern.
Lessing kept his head down, eyes tight shut, maintaining his crouching posture. His right hand was firmly pressed against the ground. swirling around his palm was no longer just a simple circle of pitch-black runes, but a dense, churning pitch-black mist that looked like liquid. The mist writhed as if it had a life of its own, emanating an unsettling chill.
This guy can use stolen Authority to control space and interfere with Columbina... As long as I eliminate him...
Coppelia did not think too much. Anemo gathered beneath her feet again, lifting her body to skim forward at low altitude, aiming straight for Lessing, instantly closing the distance by several meters.
Boom!
The pile of rubble burying Ikhtiyar to the rear-side suddenly exploded! A figure wrapped in leaping red and black flames rushed out—it was Ikhtiyar. Her right hand gripped the longsword tightly. Her clothes were scorched and tattered in many places, and her exposed skin was covered in burn marks, with flesh torn open in some spots.
But eerily, as the red and black flames flowed over the wounds, the scorched dead skin fell off, and the flesh underneath actually wriggled, healed, and regenerated at a speed visible to the naked eye.
She raised her head, her crimson pupils deadlocked onto Coppelia in mid-air, burning with pure killing intent. With a forceful stomp, a small pit exploded in the ground, and she launched herself like a cannonball fired from a chamber. Wrapped in flames, she thrust her longsword straight forward, aiming directly for Coppelia's back!
Hearing the strange noise behind her, Coppelia turned halfway, manipulating strong winds to try and blow the opponent off course. But Ikhtiyar's charging speed this time was shockingly fast; the wind force only made her figure sway slightly, the deceleration effect negligible. Seeing the sword tip arriving, Coppelia raised her right hand to block in front, blue light surging violently in her palm—
A thick, azure Hydro pillar, fully three meters in diameter, sprayed wildly from her palm like a dragon whose rage had been suppressed for too long. Carrying the force of a thousand jun, it crashed ruthlessly into the flame-wreathed Ikhtiyar!
Hydro and Pyro collided fiercely, erupting into a massive cloud of scorching white steam. Unable to dodge in time, Ikhtiyar was hit head-on by this ferocious torrent. With a muffled groan, she was blasted backward, crashing into the distant rock wall amidst splashing water.
Coppelia used the massive recoil from the water pillar to leap forward another giant step, now less than ten meters from Lessing.
She retracted the water pillar. A blazing fireball ignited with a "whoosh" in her left hand, and a jumping Electro ball condensed with a "crackle" in her right. She pushed both palms forward, intending to launch a combined strike at Lessing, who was crouching on the ground.
But just as she was seven or eight meters away from Lessing, a sudden mutation occurred.
She abruptly lost control over all elemental forces!
The Anemo element maintaining her flight vanished instantly. Her body sank, and she fell forward defenselessly, crashing onto the rough sandy ground.
Immediately after, a tearing pain came from her abdomen! The Lunar Force that had been circulating gently now seemed like a wild horse slipping its reins, charging violently within her body.
These pure energies were no longer harmonious and unified. Instead, they chaotically split into seven different, conflicting elemental forces, like the most evil toxin, frantically destroying everything inside her.
The Eternal Moon Essence is rejecting me?! Coppelia clutched her agonizing abdomen, raising her head with difficulty to look at Lessing.
He was almost entirely wrapped in that thick, churning black mist, only a vague silhouette remaining. It was him! It must be the strange spell he was casting that caused the anomaly in the Moon Essence and her own loss of control.
I can't stop. She gritted her teeth, using all her strength to prop up her body. Since she couldn't use elemental power, she picked up a hard rock the size of a sandbag nearby, clutching it tightly. Step by step, dragging legs that felt as heavy as lead, she inched toward Lessing.
But after taking only four or five steps, a more terrifying sensation swept over her. She felt unbearable soreness and pain from muscles all over her body. Her heart beat frantically in her chest, slamming painfully against her ribs. Every breath brought a searing pain; her blood vessels bulged as if they were about to burst in the next second.
She collapsed weakly to the ground again, unable to control a violent coughing fit.
"Cough! Cough, cough—!"
A sweetness rose in her throat, and she coughed up a pool of thick liquid, red to the point of blackness. It splattered onto the sand in front of her, quickly soaking in.
Blood?!
How can I be bleeding?!!!
Coppelia gasped for air, looking down in disbelief at that blinding patch of dark red. She subconsciously raised her hand and pressed it against her left chest.
Under her palm, came a clear and powerful pulsation—Thump, thump, thump. Her chest rose and fell with her "breathing."
There was a heart beating there. There was a pair of lungs expanding and contracting.
Lessing had, in such a short time, forcibly transformed her mechanical body into a body of flesh and blood?!
The shock momentarily suppressed even the pain. Before Coppelia could fully recover from this inconceivable reality—
A tightening and severe pain, as if her internal organs were being torn apart alive, erupted from her abdomen!
She hurriedly looked down.
Only to hear a muffled "thud."
The Eternal Moon Essence, emitting a soft blue light, fell out and rolled onto the sandy ground.
And in her abdomen, the chaotic elemental forces had burned out a large hole with charred, festering edges.
The residual massive amount of elemental power released when the Moon Essence departed ravaged her newly born fleshy abdominal cavity one last time. The hole became larger and more horrifying, the flesh at the edges curled and charred. Warm liquid gushed like tears from the damaged blood vessels and internal organs, dripping down like rain.
That liquid was viscous like mud, and red to the point of blackness.
____
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